Lyons: A peculiar response to a records request

North Port attorney's tactic is unusual. But it might just be brilliant.

Tom Lyons

Here in Florida, all of us own the government documents known as public records.

Most are so boring we don't care.

Almost none would shed any light on an investigation of two unnamed North Port police officers accused of behavior that might have been modeled on a 1970s porn movie, with police uniform and handcuffs included.

But boring or not, Florida law is clear about what is supposed to happen when we ask to see a public record. The local government administrator with custody of that document is supposed to make it available, and promptly.

If that administrator thinks the document may not be public and ought not be handed over, it is normal to ask an attorney for advice, right away. But then the law requires the administrator to either hand over the document or promptly refuse, in writing, and cite the state statute that makes the record exempt.

But in North Port, the city attorney decided not to do either. Instead, he turned the guy who asked for a public record into a defendant.

No, really. It's been in news stories.

In filing his weird lawsuit, City Attorney Rob Robinson — already much criticized for running up so many big legal bills paid by North Port taxpayers — may have found a brilliant new ploy.

The records request came from Michael Barfield, a two-time prison inmate much better known now as a Sarasota legal researcher who makes many public records requests. Some reveal inside-government tidbits and questionable e-mail conversations about local government practices.

Barfield is not universally popular at city halls for this work, naturally, or for working with attorney Andrea Mogensen on lawsuits targeting elected officials they think violated open government laws.

But in North Port, it is Barfield who just became a civil defendant. On paper, anyway.

I'd call that status a legal fiction. Robinson wasn't able to accuse Barfield of wrongdoing, just of asking for something Robinson supposedly can't decide whether to hand over or not.

But to be clear: Whatever investigators are finding out about the allegation of coerced sexual contact by one or two North Port police officers with a handcuffed woman at a party remains under wraps, because that investigation is still underway. No argument there. Barfield only asked for documents showing the names of all North Port police officers now on administrative leave and being paid by taxpayers to stay home.

Has information about city employees on administrative leave suddenly become a state secret that can't be revealed to the people paying the bill? Did this secrecy kick in because the only cops on administrative leave might well be the officers being investigated in a salacious accusation embarrassing to the police department?

That is no doubt why those officers want their leave status kept secret, but it is hard to see that as a legal basis for hiding every city document that has the officers' names on it without mention of sexual acts, coercion or handcuffs.

Yet Robinson wants to play it really safe, it seems. And much as I dislike his dodge of a law I hold dear, I have to admire Robinson's creativity.

In effect, Robinson has now spent billable time failing to comply with a public records request by claiming he has no idea what to do. He has found a way to stall the public records request and can bill the city for legal advice that basically says he can't decide what to advise.

That's genius!

And, he gets paid for filing the lawsuit asking a judge to tell him what to do.

Better yet, when a judge set a prompt hearing date to avoid extending the stall, Robinson said he was booked that day. Waiting two weeks or more would work for him.

Maybe Robinson could not find any other lawyer in his firm to fill in at such a hearing. Could be not every lawyer can be as convincing on a claim that he can't understand what the law requires — and so do anything.

When I called Robinson, he told me he doesn't comment on pending litigation.

I replied that this might be wise, because I wanted him to speak truthfully to me. That can work against a lawyer in court.